UCSB Splits Two At The UC San Diego Triton Invitational

Sep 02, 2006

Sept. 2, 2006

LA JOLLA, Calif. -
On the first day of UC San Diego's Triton Invitational, the No. 10 UC Santa Barbara men's water polo team split two games defeating UC Santa Cruz, 11-3 before falling to No. 7 UC San Diego, 9-7.

In the first game of the 2006 season, UC Santa Barbara went up against UC Santa Cruz. With 5:03 to go in the first quarter, UCSB drew an ejection and were able to take advantage of the six-on-five power play opportunity with Coulson Lantz scoring the first goal of the game. Stefan Partelow added another point for the Gauchos before UCSB drew a five-meter penalty shot which was converted into the Gauchos third straight goal by Miles Price to bring the score to 3-0.

By the end of the first half, the Gauchos were ahead 7-0. The Gauchos outscored the Bannana Slugs 4-3 in the second half taking away an11-3 victory. Leading scorers for UCSB were Lantz, Price, and Ross Sinclair with two goals each.

After defeating the Banana Slugs, the Gauchos went into their second game of the day against the No. 7 UCSD Titans. As the first quarter started, UCSB got ahead as Ratko Paunovic quickly scored the first goal with 5:11 on the clock. UCSD's A.J. Kotanjian made the game even again with 4:52 left in the first quarter. With less than three minutes left in the first, the Tritons were ahead 4-1. With only 35 seconds left in the quarter, Sinclair scored bringing the Gauchos within two goals.

As the second quarter began, the Tritons scored once more making it 5-2. With only 17 seconds left in the first half, Price scored for UCSB once again bringing the Gauchos within two.

The Tritons stuck hard at the beginning of the second half by scoring two more goals. Price and Mark Knudtsen each tallied a goal apiece as the Gauchos crawled closer to UCSD, 7-5.

The final quarter began as the Tritons scored two goals within the first four minutes, pulling ahead even further, 9-5. Within 30 seconds of the ninth goal by UCSD, Sinclair tallied his fourth goal of the day as the Gauchos brought the score to 9-6 . With 1:53 left in the game, Matt Dale scored, but time ran out as the UCSD Tritons defeated the UCSB Gauchos 9-7. Price and Sinclair ended the game as the leading scorers with two goals each.

Following Saturday's game the Gauchos are now 1-1 on the young season.

Tournament play will continue at UC San Diego's Canyonview Aquatics Center with the No. 10 Gauchos facing No. 8 UC Irvine tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. Depending on the result of the game against the Anteaters, the Gauchos will play at either 12:40 p.m. or 1:50 p.m.